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Sunday, May 1, 2011

Quiet Please

Quiet Please

Guest Post Nina Pierce – May 1 -- Sexy Divas

I don’t know how many times I’ve read the blog post, Twitter or Facebook status of an author who begins by mentioning what music they’re listening to on their iPod or the music mix they’ve made for their newest novel. I know music gives a sense of atmosphere. Emotions are wrapped up in the pounding rock beat of a fight scene or the sensuous melody of jazz for penning love scenes. I’ve written whole stories based on one line from a song that spurred my imagination. I completely understand how music puts a writer in the mood.

Well—many writers.

I am part of the small majority of writers who can’t write with music playing in the background. People talking. The television blaring. Even video games. I can block all of that from my mind as I work on my stories. But music? No Way. Music seems to wiggle straight through everything and scrambles my wires. I can’t ignore it. All the channels and thoughts in my brain become one conglomeration of jumbled noise all wrapped up in lyrics and melodies.

I’ve never been able to listen to music and focus. When I was in high school and college I drove siblings and roommates insane with the need to turn off the stereo so I could do my homework or study for a test. I don’t know why this is the case. It just is.

It’s all very weird because I’m a woman and I can listen to 2 or 3 conversations at the same time and keep up pretty well with all of them. Multi-tasking is my middle name. But writing and listening to music? It’s not going to happen in my office.

When my children were young I would shut off all radios and television while they did their homework. But what I discovered is that they weren’t wired like me. My daughter uses music to help her focus. For many people, it becomes the white noise that centers them and drowns out all extraneous thoughts and stimuli so they can get down to business.

He’s a shock jock looking to reform. She’s an accountant hoping to cut loose. Can love open their eyes to forever?

Uptight CPA and oldest sister, JULIE TILLING, is the glue that binds her family. Everyone depends on her to do the right thing. When her friend from high school dies and Julie is the only one who believes he didn’t commit suicide, she takes it upon herself to investigate his death.

DAMON COREY didn’t come to Maine to become a shock jock. But when his dream career of becoming a concert pianist seems unobtainable, the radio station’s offer is too good to pass up. When mysterious brunette Jewel, hooks up with him at the night club run by a college frat brother, their one night fling wraps around his heart and makes him believe in love at first sight.

But can Damon expose his inner soul without pushing Julie away or will his enigmatic shock jock persona become Julie’s sexual undoing and reveal him as the missing piece that solves the puzzling questions surrounding her friend’s death?

EXCERPT:

He stopped short when he realized the door to the back offices of the club was blocked. A raven-haired beauty stared down the bouncer guarding the entrance from unauthorized customers. The woman stood defiantly with her hands on her hips. Her breasts pushed forward, brushing the guy’s barrel chest.

“Well, I guess I just don’t understand. You’ve let all kinds of people go through that door behind you. I’ve seen them coming and going. Why not me?”

He recognized the feisty woman. Twenty minutes ago, she’d acted like she didn’t understand what was going on when the dance floor spotlight flooded over her. It hadn’t taken much coaxing from the crowd to get her to join the dance competition. Damon had seen lots of women appear all innocent until they were nearly naked in front of the crowd. Not this one. He’d watched her ride her partner’s thigh, her body swaying sensually to the music, her lids hanging heavy with desire. He was sure she’d be like all the rest, slithering out of her clothes and satisfying herself in public. But she hadn’t. She’d done some kind of slink and roll and extricated herself quite gracefully from the writhing bodies on the dance floor, then disappeared.

She’d definitely caught his attention. Damon’s body reacted to the memory. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t too tired to enjoy a drink or two with a lively number like her.

“As I told you, only members can go through, or guests on the list.” The bouncer looked down his crooked nose at her, the strobe lights reflecting off his bald head. He pounded his stubby finger on his clipboard. “Ma’am, if you’re not on the list, you’re not going in.”

“Ma’am? Do I look like a ma’am to you?” she asked, poking the big man in the sternum.

Damon bit back a laugh. There weren’t many who would stand up to this particular bouncer. Just the size of his tattooed forearms was enough to intimidate most patrons of Starry Knights. She seemed unfazed by his size and gruff scowl. Maybe he could save the poor schlep blocking the door, give the woman access to the back rooms and find if she was interested in a little something more.

He didn’t feel quite so tired anymore.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Award-winning erotic romance author, Nina Pierce, grew up in a house full of readers. So becoming enamored with books was only natural. She discovered romance stories in her early teens, falling hopelessly in love with knights in shining armor and the damsels who saved them.

Eventually, reading about alpha males and the journey to find their happy-ever-after endings wasn’t enough. She needed to pen her own stories of fated loves and soul mates. Nina’s discovered the passionate side of romance with her sexy stories. For her, it’s all about the sweet scent of seduction mixed with the heartwarming aroma of romance.

Nina resides in the northeast with her high school sweetheart and soul mate of twenty-seven years, their three grown children and several very spoiled cats who consider her “staff”.

20 comments:

I know what you mean, Nina. I'm one of those writers that need complete quiet in order to write. Music/conversation/babies wailing/dogs barking only distracts me.

However, when I'm in the car with the radio playing, music frequently brings a scene from my current WIP to mind. I see it like a movie, with the music allowing me to add details I hadn't thought of before.

Strange, I know. But there you have it. I can use music to brainstorm my stories, but I can't stand to listen to it as I write them. :)

Blind Love looks like a marvelous story. That the hero aspires to be a concert pianist, won me over right then and there.Not a silent writer here. I often use music to inspire me before I write a scene and, while I'm writing, I listen to NPR on the radio. I couldn't tell you much what of is said on NPR but having the mellow chatter seems to oil up my writer's mind.Wonderful post, Nina.

Nina, I can write against any noise in the background except music! Music seems to interfere or block the writing synapses. When I was in college, I'd go work in a noisy bar, never a library - too much quiet gives me writer's block, but music is the worse.

Add me to the "no music" club. I cannot write to music. I never studied with music playing. Absolute quiet was the only way I could get homework done. You'll never catch me falling asleep to music either. My brain is not wired that way.

Funny, though. I can sit in a room reading where people are talking, a television is blaring, and kids are crying...and hear none of that! I can block out anything when I'm reading. Never understood why I can't when I'm writing.

I need an instrumental soundtrack when I write a scene that is challenging to me. At very low volume, I play the same piece of music over and over again until the scene is complete. Why? The music seems to anchor a certain emotional tone that I can't sustain on my own for that many hours or days in a row. XXOO KatBest wishes to you Nina, with "Blind Love"

I'm mostly a "quiet please" gal when writing, but for brain storming (or doing something really fast like a fight scene or a "brain dumping sprint") I like music :). Guess I'm a half-breed? Great blog :)

Music usually inspires me but I need absolute quiet in order to write. I am usually most productive in the wee hours of the morning when all is quiet in the house. I've tried to write through the video games but I just end up being frustrated and writing a lot of garbage.

Marie - When I first started writing I enjoyed the morning hours before the kids got up and then right after they went to school. Now (even though my children are mostly out of the house, the wee hours of the morning seem to work best for me also. I'm not sure when my body made the switch.

I'm one of those who need quiet to write also. Editing, not so much. But when I'm writing I have noise-blocking headphones to eliminate the multiple TVs, stereos and computers that are abuzz in my house until way past the wee hours of the morning. I used to try to outlast them, but the young adults my children have turned into can outlast me any day! What an intriguing cover...good luck with sales.

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Tina is an Amazon and international bestselling novelist who writes passionate romance for every taste - 'heat with heart' - for traditional publishers and indie. Booklist, Publisher's Weekly, Romantic Times, and numerous online sites have praised her work. Three of her erotic novels (Freeing the Beast, Come and Get Your Love, and Wicked Takeover) were Readers' Choice Award winners. Another three (Adored, Lush Velvet Nights, and Deep, Dark, Delicious) were named finalists in the EPIC competition. Sensual Stranger, her erotic contemporary romance, was chosen Book of the Year at the French review site Blue Moon reviews. The Golden Nib Award at Miz Love Loves Books was created specifically for her erotic romance Lush Velvet Nights. Two of her titles (The Yearning and Deep, Dark Delicious) received an Award of Merit in the RWA Holt Medallion competition. Take Me Away and Adored both won second place in the NEC RWA contest (different years). Tina is featured in the Novel & Short Story Writer's Market. Before penning romances, she worked at a major Hollywood production company in Story Direction.